Anyone wanna help me out? Here is what I do now.

Tie a Finnese Hook from Gamakatsu with a Palomar knot,

Take excess line from Palomar, and put a spilt shot or two on the bottom of that,

Nose hook or waky hook a senko type bait.

Am I doin the riggin right?

Then I cast itout in 50-80 ft of water, Too deep?

I tried it in 30 ft once, but the person running the boat wont bass fish, he wants to drift live bait for lakers(go figure).

So normally I walk the banks, will this technique work in 12-18 ft of clear water?

OKay so now it is in the water, What do I do, Normally I just twitch the rod tip? Is that right?

PB,

Sounds like you are doing it right. Just fish it from the bank closer to cover. Might want to try a small offset worm hook like a 1/0. I usually put it next to some cover and shake it. Also riprap is good just cast parallel to it like you are crankbait fishing. Also docks, and points. I usually shake continuously. works for me.

PB, it sounds like your set-up is right, but I'm not sure if a couple of split shots is going to give you enough weight to hold the line straight down (depends on size?). You say you threw it in 50-80 feet of water, so now I have to ask "why" ? What was in the 50-80' of water to make you throw your bait there? No matter where you throw the drop-shot you need to have some type of structure or cover to hold the fish. We have a lake in N Florida that is gin clear with grass that grows in the 14-21' range. But you can move out to 35' and work a point that runs all the way out and catch fish. To answer another of your questions, I've seen people split-shot in 3' of water in pretty heavy cover and do very well.

Make sure you're throwing the bait into some type of structure or cover, whether that be grass, brush, ditch or point. Work the bait a few different ways, slow, fast, or dead-stick, to see what the fish want that given day.

Hope this answers some of your questions. Good luck out on the water.

Two tricks you might be doing already, but I'll mention them.  First, always tie your palomar knot by inserting the line on the same side as the hook point, this way the hook with ride with the point facing up.  Second, before attaching your weight, take the tag end of the line and insert it back through the eye of the hook from the top (hook point side), this will make the hook stand out nice and straight.  I would recommend starting with a 1/4oz weight and adjusting from there based on depth, wind, etc.  As billybass said, throwing into any depth water doesn't make sense unless there is some structure or cover that is going to hold fish.

The first time I ever saw drop-shotting was while fishing with a guide on Table Rock -- the fish were suspended at 30' over 70' of water.  He had us mark the line so that we could keep it at 30' and we caught a boat load of fish.  Last year, on Memorial Day weekend, I was fishing a public pond that was shoulder to shoulder with bank fishers.  I rigged a drop-shot and was casting it out to weed beds in probably 5-7 feet of water and catching one right after another while the others stood and watched.  Also last year, one of our club tournaments was won by a guy fishing a drop shot on windy rock points -- he had the hook up about 10" and that was enough to get bites when nobody else could.  There are lots of ways to fish a drop shot, you just have to experiment.

PB, it sounds like your set-up is right, but I'm not sure if a couple of split shots is going to give you enough weight to hold the line straight down (depends on size?). You say you threw it in 50-80 feet of water, so now I have to ask "why" ? What was in the 50-80' of water to make you throw your bait there? No matter where you throw the drop-shot you need to have some type of structure or cover to hold the fish. We have a lake in N Florida that is gin clear with grass that grows in the 14-21' range. But you can move out to 35' and work a point that runs all the way out and catch fish. To answer another of your questions, I've seen people split-shot in 3' of water in pretty heavy cover and do very well.

Make sure you're throwing the bait into some type of structure or cover, whether that be grass, brush, ditch or point. Work the bait a few different ways, slow, fast, or dead-stick, to see what the fish want that given day.

Hope this answers some of your questions. Good luck out on the water.

nothing was there, but I needed to try, my brother in law, the one who owns the boat, would go any shallower, he wouldnt eve attempt bass fishing. He wanted to drift fish or just sit there and hope a friggin laker would try and take it. Most boring time i ever had on a boat.

Then I cast itout in 50-80 ft of water, Too deep?

Only 80 feet? I get most of my fish in 1 mile deep. It's cold and dark, but the fish still bite.  

lol i take it that means way to deep

Yeah, it seems a bit deep. But shoot, I'm in Florida. The deepest lake I've ever seen was only about 40 feet.

You must be up north somewhere.

We catch smallmouth out on Erie in 40+ feet of water in the summer.  Ask some of the West Coast guys, I'm sure more than a few of them have caught bass in the 80 foot range and beyond.  If the food and cover is deep, the bass will be there too.  50-80 feet is only too deep if the fish are not there.

I read an article recently and Aaron Martens claimed to have caught bass on a drop shot rig in 140 ft of water........   Thats hardcore bassin right there!

Whenever I fish a dropshot,I will always fish it vertical......straight over top of fish on my graph.The whole idea behind the dropshot rig is to get the lockjawed bass to bite by keeping the bait right on their nose until they smash it.It sounds like you've got the shaking part right,thats basically all I do with it.But I always find fish before I drop my rig.Its critical to have it within close proximity of some fish when fishing it vertical since your not moving it along the bottom like a regular plastic worm where you cover a whole area instead of just one spot.

I wont fish a drop shot horizontally along the bottom,I feel like there are better rigs for that.(Texas,Carolina)

Sometimes you can overdo it on the shaking.  Especially with smallmouths in cold water I have found that they will often bite better when you dedstick it.  If you're not getting bites with the shaking, try leaving it alone.  It might be the ticket.  

Hope this helps

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